What's In A McName?

Article by Daniel Lindley Mother Jones Magazine
January 15, 1987

Big Mac has clashed with macrobiotics in the California coastal town of Santa
Cruz, and the result is a case of corporate heartburn. The story starts at
a laid-back vegetarian restaurant in Santa Cruz called McDharma's Natural Fast
foods. Beyond the filial Gaelic prefix and an ability to whip out sandwiches
in the blink of an eye, McDharma's seems to have little in common with McDonald's.
But the world's biggest burger chain, which did not return phone calls for
this story, still has accused the one-outlet McDharma's of infringing on its
trademark.

At first glance it seems like a McMismatch. McDonald's which generated $3.7
billion in revenues last year from 8,901 restaurants in 41 countries, has sold
so many hamburgers (more than 50 billion) that it gave up keeping a running
count for the public a few years ago. McDharma's on the other hand, boasts
about having prepared more than 100,000 Brahma Burgers, which are made of beans,
nuts, seeds, grains, and soy product. Its 15 employees helped grind out over
$300,000 in sales last year, according to co-owner Bernie Shapiro.

McDonald's, headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, had been blithely unaware
of the funky Santa Cruz eatery until 1984, when McDharma's, then three years
old, sought its own trademark protection in Washington, D.C. A war of verbal
and legal maneuvers ensued, and the reports in the local media of a vegetarian
David confronting a corporate Goliath have brought crowds of the curious as
well as the hungry to McDharma's doors.

The place appears to live up to all the cliches a California-hater can muster:
diners munch soy dogs, imitation chicken patties, and Nuclear Subs while lounging
on a patio shielded from a busy street by a stand of bamboo. Cashiers wear
T-shirts, shorts, and sandals. There are no golden arches, but McDharma's makes
an equally strong architectural statement in what could be described as New
Age Quonset Hut.

the dispute has brought in queries about leases
too, and franchises soon many be sprouting up around northern California,
leaving the McDonald's anti-McDharma's strategy to blow up in the company's
face. "It's such a joke," says
Shapiro, "and they're the only ones taking it seriously."